Open House Dedication 2422 McElderry Street. Left to Right: Amanda Owens, Abell Foundation; Carla Richardson, BOS; the Rev. Gary Dittman, Amazing Grace Lutheran Church; Donna Rich, BOS; the Rev. John Sabatelli, Christ Lutheran Church; Karen Adkins, BOS; Connie Crabtree, BOS Board Member; Dan McCarthy, Episcopal Housing Corporation.
Our supportive housing unit at 2422 McElderry Street is home to two families. Read an article published by Diakon about this home.
Supportive Housing
Supportive Housing is the interim step between emergency shelter and market housing.
Most emergency shelters in the Baltimore area have a 90-day length of stay, but the residents at Baltimore Outreach Services stay in our emergency shelter until housing is available, as long as they are working toward their goals of housing and self-sufficiency. Our residents do not have enough income to participate in traditional market housing.
Once a resident has obtained employment and is ready to leave the shelter, the lack of available supportive housing becomes evident. Supportive housing is a two-year, intensive counseling and mentoring program that encourages growth to achieve goals of financial stability, mental health treatment and substance abuse recovery.
All residents must be employed to enter our supportive housing program. During their stay in supportive housing, residents resolve outstanding bills and reconcile poor credit issues while improving their job skills.
We currently operate 11 units of supportive housing for families leaving the Baltimore Outreach Services emergency shelter. We completely furnish our homes with furniture, linens and kitchen goods.
A Year of Giving — United Healthcare Staff Volunteer to Help Homeless Families
Each year UnitedHealthcare (UHC) selects an organization that invests in the community where its members live and work. The company provides all of its employees the opportunity to perform volunteer hours during the business day to an organization. We are very grateful to the staff at the Baltimore office of UnitedHealthcare for selecting BOS as the beneficiary of its volunteer efforts this year. This summer the UHC staff collected and distributed back to school supplies for the children in the shelter and in September they cleaned, painted and provided furnishing and supplies to set up a supportive home for a family leaving the shelter.
Lisa Wright, Director of Marketing and Retention for UnitedHealthcare, helps to organize the staff volunteer activities. “Baltimore Outreach Services is our organization and we are certainly ready to make a difference!”
